The Scramble: A 2015 UK General Election Game (Sign up, Commentary, etc)

[Blair]

I'm happy to kick-start my UK election campaign. I hope to start the turn by Sunday or Monday. This is going to be the thread for signing up, asking about game play mechanics, and all the general admin that comes from sorting out these games. I want to keep the other thread clean for only gameplay
related stuff.

Please also keep in mind that I'd really appreciate that you only play as a major party leader if you're willing to put a relative amount of effort/work into doing it well.

Please Sign up Below...

Players so far...

Labour- Ed Miliband (Dr_Novella), Andy Burnham (PoliticalMasta)

Conservatives- David Cameron (Truman)

Liberal Democrats- Nick Clegg (Never-Again), Vince Cable (Jaguar)

Greens- Natalie Bennett (Wxtransit)

Plaid Cymru- Leanne Wood (NotMadigan)

UKIP- Nigel Farage (Lumine)

RESPECT- George Galloway (Sanchez)

[Blair]

I'm curious, would it be possible to be JRM?

No sorry; before Brexit JRM had virtually no profile beyond being on the list of rather wacky benchbench MPs (much like Corbyn) If I run a 2018/2019 game later on he'll be available.

Oh wow, I'm stupid. I'd like Natalie Bennett, please.

I've got about 20 tabs open so it's my fault for not posting this thread first. But yes, you can have Natalie Bennett, and this amusing story should shown some of the 'unique' problems she faced.

I'd like to ask about Plaid Cymru, are they open to being played as?

yes; although they're heavily limited in that they'll only be able to fight in a handful of seats.

[Blair]

I'd like to ask about Plaid Cymru, are they open to being played as?

yes; although they're heavily limited in that they'll only be able to fight in a handful of seats.

Only 19 less than the SNP fight in.  I'll gladly play as Leanne Wood, Leader of Plaid Cymru.

Okay I'll add you to the list.

[Blair]

Could I have Osborne? Thanks.

sure thing

[Blair]

I will take Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrats.

Noted. Have fun with calamity Clegg

I'm sorry for making this correction, but isn't it Leanne Wood for Plaid Cymru?

Have fixed this; ironically Paul Nutall made this mistake in a TV debate and got a lot of stick for it

[Blair]

Can I take RESPECT and try and hold Galloway's seat?

Your result would be almost solely based on Labours performance and you’ll struggle (Galloway only got 21% of the vote in 2015) but sure why not

[Blair]

Can I go for a fictional creation?

No sorry there’s not a way I could see that working in a U.K. election

[Blair]

Can I go for a fictional creation?

No sorry there’s not a way I could see that working in a U.K. election

Well I like to be a real person but with a What If background

Who do you have in mind?

[Blair]

If I can’t then I will take Vince Cable.

You can have Cable. I can't imagine a scenario where Houghton would run in 2015; ex-military commanders only tend to run in British Politics to fulfill a certain niche, and I can't see why the Chief of the UK's Armed Forces would quit to become a backbench MP.

[Blair]

I'll do the SNP, since the Lib Dems were taken.

As Sturgeon?

[Blair]

Ok well when does the turn start?

I'm not sure yet, probably sometime this weekend.

[Blair]

As much as I hate doing this I wouldn't feel comfortable with JasonHitchcock taking a role in the game; the entirety of his posts seem focused around rather low quality posts into the game board.

The fact that he's already posted about 6 times, and managed to create a minor controversy within 24 hours of the game launching makes me very uncertain that any good would come from him taking part.

I want the game to be fun/enjoyable/as accessible as possible but equally I feel that a line has to be drawn somewhere.

[Blair]

So moving on, we need Labour and Cameron (Tories) right?  Since we already have UKIP (Lumine), SNP (Tim and ASPN), LibDems (NeverAgain and Jaguar), Greens (wxtransit), and even RESPECT (Sanchez).

Correct; in Lumine's last game the two main parties were the last ones to get players so I'm hopeful we'll find someone

[Blair]

Apologies for the lateness; I had quite a heavy day yesterday and got home quite late so hopefully the first turn should be up today.

ill be labour surrogate

Which surrogate would you want to be?

I'll take David Cameron, then. Should be fun.

Brilliant

I can switch to Labor if needed.

That would be amazing.

[Blair]

First turn is up!

I kept it quite short in terms of news, as nothing happened beyond Parliament being dissolved, and I wanted to let the first turn develop naturally. In the second turn I'll post longer news stories about campaign developments/scandals/extra issues etc.

If you have any questions post on here, or sent me a PM. And please check the rules/tips again before posting for the first time.

This turn will end in 72 Hours!


Reminders/Admin

1.) Polling will have between a 5-7% margin of error, and the link between poll numbers and seat numbers can be very weak.

2.) Can the Party Leaders please send me the Command Points request by the end of the Turn. See more info here Don't spend them all at once!

3.) Try and switch up your events/campaign approach- go to different regions, do different formats, and try and mix up your themes with one message.

4.) Debates will start next turn (Turn 2 and 4 for all parties, and Turn 3 for Miliband/Clegg/Cameron)- as you can tell I'm still getting the hang of running a game so the first turn is a bit of a test run.

[Blair]

I was actually confused why we started, couldn't we try waiting like a day or two for more players?  Cause Labour is still leaderless (I think)

Dr_Novella signed up for Labour- as we've got all the main leaders, I thought that any new players could just jump in as surrogates.

[Blair]

I was actually confused why we started, couldn't we try waiting like a day or two for more players?  Cause Labour is still leaderless (I think)

Dr_Novella signed up for Labour- as we've got all the main leaders, I thought that any new players could just jump in as surrogates.

Alright then, is this the turn for Manifesto launches?  Or how would those work?

Manifestos can be launched at any turn, the tactical choice is up to you. You want them to get as much coverage as possible, and there is an advantage to either deploying them early or holding back.

[Blair]

If it's not too late, can I take Boris Johnson?

Hey sorry no idea how I missed this post- you can ofc take Boris.

[Blair]

I was actually confused why we started, couldn't we try waiting like a day or two for more players?  Cause Labour is still leaderless (I think)

Dr_Novella signed up for Labour- as we've got all the main leaders, I thought that any new players could just jump in as surrogates.

Alright then, is this the turn for Manifesto launches?  Or how would those work?

Manifestos can be launched at any turn, the tactical choice is up to you. You want them to get as much coverage as possible, and there is an advantage to either deploying them early or holding back.

Where would we announce them?  On the campaign thread in a separate post?  or will there be a separate thread for them?

I've created a separate thread for them

[Blair]

As I’m stuck on a train for most of tomorrow, and since we’re off to a slow start this turn will close at 11.59PM EST on Friday

[Blair]

Question for the next turn: could I use Caroline Lucas to campaign also, or is that only if another player joins as her?

Yes- I forgot to say that surrogates not used by players can be used by the main players.

As it’s the first turn and because I know Truman had a LOA I’ll see if he posts tonight; my plan was to write up tomorrow morning anyway, but in the future I won’t give extensions beyond 12-24 hours as it’s unfair to the people who spend ages getting turns in before the close.

Am very impressed with the quality/depth of the posts; should be an interesting turn.

[Blair]

Posted, apologies for taking so long with my posts.  I just have two things to ask. 

Are internal polls Constituency or Region based? 

And could we please wait to end this turn until Truman (and possibly Transit) post their turns?  I know Truman is still probably busy with IRL things, and that Transit is probably busy as well, so I personally would be willing to give them another day.

Edit: Also I'd like some time for this back and forth with Lumine too, it'll be rather fun I think.

You can do constituency polling; it will cost the same as it’s very expensive (in RL the only party who use seat by seat polling are the Conservatives) equally you can do regional polling- although that’s only valuable for regional parties.

[Blair]

Turn two along with the debates should be up later tonight

[Blair]

Turn Two has opened. I'm going to try something different- if you want to take part in the TV debates you most post your debate answers by Wednesday 23:59PM EST. This allows people to use the TV debates in the campaign thread, and gives the turn a bit more of a flow (with the overall turn ending on Thursday evening if that works)

The turn covers 7-14th April (and this may be the last 7 day turn as election day gets closer). Also, a note- the movement in the opinion shouldn't be seen as either 100% correct, or a reflection on the quality, to give examples both the Lib Dems and Labours would have had good turns if it wasn't for factors beyond their control.

Edit: Command Points will be updated tomorrow morning, along with a Breaking News Story...

[Blair]

Campaign points done.